Relative of Chunia pledgei named Ektopodon serratus (top left), with Wakaleo oldfieldi.
Reconstruction of the early Miocene Kutjumarpu faunal assemblage by Peter Schouten
Julien Louys, Griffith University; Gilbert Price, The University of Queensland; Mathieu Duval, Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana (CENIEH), and Robin Beck, University of Salford
80,000 years ago, Australia’s landscape was dominated by much larger versions of today’s marsupials – including enigmatic and enormous wombats.
The 1878, the body of Sergeant Michael Kennedy lay in the bush in Victoria’s Wombat Ranges. He’d been shot by the notorious Ned Kelly gang – but the bush would add its own gruesome ending.
Two newly discovered species of quokka-sized kangaroos, which lived 18 million years ago in the Queensland rainforest, show evolution in the act of giving kangaroos a taste for leaves.
The numbat is one of the Tasmanian tiger’s closest surviving relatives. And its newly sequenced genome raises the possibility of piecing together the genetic code of its extinct fellow marsupial.
When a plant is stressed, it mobilises its resources and often converts its starch reserves back to sugar. As soon as this happens, the stressed plant becomes sweeter than its healthier neighbours.
Tassie devils are notorious scavengers, eating everything from echidnas to stranded whales. Understanding how their teeth wear down can help us feed and protect captive populations.
For phascogales, tree hollows are getting harder to find. I venture into forests and study how well artificial hollows made with chainsaws can replace them.
Once thought to occur only in birds and mammals in the Northern Hemisphere, due to the more pronounced winters, we now know torpor is widespread in small Australian mammals.
Ten years ago, we feared Tasmanian devils would be wiped out by a bizarre infectious facial cancer transmitted by biting. But new genetic analysis shows they are evolving to live with the disease.
Fossil remains indicate these birds had a wingspan of over 20 feet.
Brian Choo
Paleontologists have discovered fossil remains belonging to an enormous ‘toothed’ bird that lived for a period of about 60 million years after dinosaurs.
The revamped citizenship test would include questions focused on “Australian values”. But why not ask prospective Australians to show an understanding of our ancient landscape and unique species too?
Smithsonian Institution/colourised by D.S. Rovinsky
The “Tasmanian tiger” was hunted to extinction based on its perceived size as a predator big enough to take sheep. But it seems this was just a tall tale, and the thylacine weighed just 16.7kg.